David S. Cohen of Variety has conducted a lengthy interview with James Cameron.
The director of The Terminator, Aliens, Titanic and the forthcoming Avatar talks about a number of different things related to making films in 3-D, including the power of scenes shot in the medium:
When you see a scene in 3-D, that sense of reality is supercharged. The visual cortex is being cued, at a subliminal but pervasive level, that what is being seen is real.
All the films I’ve done previously could absolutely have benefited from 3-D. So creatively, I see 3-D as a natural extension of my cinematic craft.
The renaissance of the new wave of 3-D films:
The new 3-D, this stereo renaissance, not only solves all the old problems of bad projection, eyestrain, etc., but it is being used on first-class movies that are on people’s must-see lists.
These are fundamental changes from what happened with the flash-in-the-pan 3-D craze of the ’50s. 3-D is also a chance to rewrite the rules, to raise ticket prices for a tangible reason, for demonstrable value-added.
The state of 3-D in the home video market:
The only limitation to having stereo viewing in the home is the number of titles currently available. When there is more product, the consumer electronics companies will make monitors and players.
The technology exists and is straightforward. Samsung has already shipped 2 million plasma widescreens which can decode an excellent stereo image. There’s just no player to hook up to it right now.
Filming his latest project in 3-D:
On “Avatar,” I have not consciously composed my shots differently for 3-D. I am just using the same style I always do.
In fact, after the first couple of weeks, I stopped looking at the shots in 3-D while I was working, even though the digital cameras allow real-time stereo viewing.
Check out the full interview here.
> James Cameron at the IMDb
> Find out more about 3-D filmmaking at Wikipedia
> Cameron fansite
